New Growth
by Nightgazer13
Summary: A tale detailing the year after the Metarex were defeated. Mostly deals with Tails' relationships with the other characters, but there are a few other POVs as well. There will be Taismo, as well as some Sonamy and Knuxouge. Deal with it. 'T' just in case.
1. Epilog

**Epilog**

A broken fox walked though the broken halls of the ship he had built. Chris had been looking for him for quite a while now. With Dark Oak destroyed and the galaxy saved, everyone was waiting for their captain's orders, even Eggman, whose own ship was now merged and entangled with the Blue Typhoon. When Chris finally caught up with the twin-tailed fox, he immediately called to him.

"Tails!"

Tails turned to look at the human boy who had called his name. He looked at Chris as if it was the first time he had ever seen him.

"Tails!" Chris called again, "Are you alright? Everyone's waiting for you on the bridge."

Tails just sighed and shook his head, "You take the bridge Chris," he said quietly.

"What!? Me!?" Chris was surprised by Tails' answer. "But you're the captain! This is your ship!"

"Take us home Chris," Tails continued "and let me know when we're close". With that, Tails turned around and continued his walk back to his room.

"Sure Tails" Chris promised him "I'll do that." As he watched the ship's captain walk away, Chris wondered what he would tell the others. Their victory had come with a heavy price, and this was NOT going to help boost morale. He continued to think about this as he made his way to the bridge, thus beginning their long journey home.

* * *

_Author's Note: This is the prolog to my story and the Epilog to Sonic X, season 3. Just in case anyone besides me is actually reading this, I'll try to have a new chapter (and much longer ones, for that matter) up every day. The story is actually mostly complete, I'm just re-reading and editing. I'm just uploading this for fun, really, so if you like the story, great. Feel free to leave a review even, but keep in mind I'm not likely to change anything about the story unless someone gives me a killer idea or they point out a REALLY big flaw. Well, anyhow, hope you enjoy it!_


	2. Blame and Guilt

**Blame and Guilt**

As Tails walked toward his room, he surveyed the damage to his ship, tracing the fresh cracks with his fingers. He noted the numerous large holes and splits in the walls that had resulted from their final battles. He knew from earlier data that the Typhoon had received heavy damage; one of the wings had been clipped, several engines were lost, the Master Emerald had been shattered, and the main cannon had completely collapsed.

Thinking about that blasted cannon suddenly made Tails very angry. He clenched his fists as he remembered the horrible light that had taken her away from him. But the feeling was gone in a flash, and Tails hung his head as his fists unclenched. It wasn't the cannon's fault she was gone. Cannons don't fire themselves.

Arriving at his room, Tails went to his computer and ran a quick diagnostic of the ship. It was in even worse shape than he'd thought, and he was honestly starting to wonder if it was even worth restoring when he got home. The only reason the Blue Typhoon was even able to function right now was because Dr. Eggman's Crimson Egg was still attached to it. It might just be better to salvage what few undamaged parts the Typhoon had left and just make a new ship. As he pondered this, Tails left his computer and sat down on his bed. His eyes were drawn to the picture he kept on his nightstand. It was a picture of him with all of his friends at a party on the ship. It was funny, Cosmo had been standing right next to him then, and now she was dead.

There. He finally did it. He had finally forced himself to admit the truth about Cosmo. She was dead. DEAD! The thought washed away all of the mental barriers Tails had hastily put into place in his futile attempts to remain calm. He wrapped his tails around himself and cried bitterly. He wasn't sure how long he cried for, and frankly he didn't care. He only stopped crying when he noticed something in his hand. Tails gazed down at the object that he had almost forgotten he was carrying.

As Tails stared at the small seed in his hand, he wondered how he could have fallen so far so fast. He and Cosmo had only known each other for a relatively short amount of time, but in that short period they had become much more than just friends. He hadn't even truly realized how much he really cared, how far he'd really go for her, until the end. Had he really told her he loved her? Yes… yes he had, and she had said the same to him. That was comforting in some ways, but it also reminded Tails of how much he would miss her. He felt the tears returning, and wondered if he would ever be able to stop crying.

* * *

In the weeks that followed a kind of strange normalcy returned to the ship. Sonic ran around, because that's what he does when he needs to blow off steam. Knuckles hung around the engine room with the shards of the Master Emerald, wondering if there was anything he could do to help it recover faster. Tails had buried himself in his work, repairing the engines, sensors, and other systems that were essential to the ship. Amy and Cream assisted Chris in piloting the Blue Typhoon home, and Rouge was helping Dr. Eggman keep power flowing to both ships. Really, everyone was mostly doing what they would have normally done on the ship, if only for the sake of routine. The strange part was the conversations among the ship's crew, or rather the lack thereof. They had each hardy spoken to the others since the battle had ended, and there was a tension on both ships that was so thick you could practically cut it with a knife. The only one who even tried to lighten the mood was Sonic, and even his attempts seemed half-hearted.

It was one of these attempts that lead Sonic to Tails' door. He had seen his little bro working his hands to the bone, and he knew the reason for it. Tails was trying to keep his mind occupied, trying not to remember. It hurt too much to remember, and Sonic hated to see his friends hurting so much. He quietly knocked on the door.

"Tails? Can I come in?"

Tails looked up from the pot he was tending numbly. He honestly didn't want to see Sonic or anyone else right now, but he knew he should let his best friend in. He had some things that he had been meaning to say, anyhow.

"Come in," Tails said weakly.

Sonic came through the door and looked sadly at his dejected friend. "Hey, buddy," he said quietly, "How're ya holdin' up?"

Tails didn't answer. He just sprinkled some fertilizer over the dirt in the pot and then poured some water on it.

"So ya planted it, huh?" Sonic said, knowing what was buried beneath the soil. "I'm sure it'll grow into something beautiful."

Tails really didn't want to talk about this. He knew what he wanted the plant to grow into, but he wasn't about to get his hopes up on some flight of fancy. The fox set the pot down and decided to change the subject. It was time he said what he needed to say.

"I'm sorry, Sonic."

"Huh?" Sonic was a little surprised by this statement. "For what?"

"For what I said to you when you gave me this seed," Tails replied.

"It's alright, Tails. Don't worry about it," Sonic said, trying to comfort his friend. It didn't seem to work, though.

"It's not alright, Sonic. I know you did the best you could. It's just… I really thought this time would be like all the other times, y'know? That we'd save the day in the nick of time and everyone would go home and we'd all be happy together. That's why I took the shot, Sonic. I thought that somehow… she'd be okay…" The young fox's voice was beginning to crack again.

Sonic tried to reassure him, "Tails, ya did what you had to do. What she wanted you to do. You saved the galaxy… the whole Universe!"

"That's not much comfort. Sonic…" Tails' voice started to break as his tears returned, "Why did this have to happen? What was the point? Why…" he could barely continue now, and his voice become very soft "Why does this keep happening to me? To the people I care about? First my parents, and… and now Cosmo!" He couldn't say any more. He just buried his head in his hands and sobbed.

"I don't know, little bro", Sonic whispered. Sonic really wasn't good at this. He had no answers for the kid. Normally he could always make Tails feel better when he was down, but Tails was not simply depressed. He was mourning the loss of someone special to him, and that would take more than a quick joke to heal. It would take time, and lots of it. Sonic put his arms around Tails as he had in days past and just sat with him. Tails looked up to him like an older brother, and Sonic had pretty much adopted Tails as a sibling. He had almost forgotten how hard Tails' life had been before they met; how his parents had died, how miserably he'd been treated by others just because he was different. Behind his easy smile and good-natured attitude, Tails had repressed years of pain and anger and sadness. Now it was all just flowing out.

Even though Tails had taken back his earlier remark, Sonic had to admit that he felt guilty. From his point in outer space he had heard what only a few others had. Cosmo had told Tails that she would love him forever, and he knew Tails would feel the same. Sonic had wanted badly to bring the two back together, and in his mind he felt he had let his little brother down. Tails' heart and soul had almost visibly shattered when Sonic handed him the Seed that he and Shadow had recovered, and now there was nothing he could do but help Tails pick up the pieces.

* * *

_Author's Note: Kinda depressing, huh? Don't worry, things'll start picking up soon_.

_By the way, this whole thing assumes that events played out as they did in the Japanese versions of episodes 77 & 78 rather than the English versions. If you haven't seen or heard about the differences between the Japanese and English versions of those episodes, I suggest you look it up, because you might be confused otherwise._


	3. Homecoming

**Homecoming**

As Tails' tears subsided after what seemed like hours, Sonic finally found the words he thought might help his friend.

"I understand what you're going through, buddy. If I ever lost you or Amy I don't know what I'd do…"

Tails looked up at him sharply at those words. "What did you just say?" he asked, and for a moment, Sonic thought Tails was angry with him.

"I…uh…"

Tails started to smile, and it grew until it turned into a wide, sly, almost evil grin.

"What was that about Amy?"

Sonic's eyes went wide as he suddenly realized the magnitude of the mistake he'd just made. He had just admitted, both to himself and to Tails, that he had developed feelings for Amy. Tails laughed out loud as the thought washed over the poor Hedgehog. Sonic looked blankly at Tails for a moment, looking for some way to take back what he had just said. The damage had been done though, and Sonic eventually just sighed and decided to come clean, "I guess after that last fight with Dark Oak I've finally realized how lucky I am to have someone who cares about me the way she does. She may be a pain sometimes, but she's always there for me in a pinch. Kinda like you!"

"Are you saying I'm a pain?" asked Tails.

"What? NO! I meant… aaaawwwwwggghh!" Sonic realized that Tails was just having fun with him when the fox burst out laughing. He had to laugh, too. It was amazing how flustered this topic had made the usually cool hedgehog.

"So you finally admit that you like her!" Tails laughed, "Have you told her that yet?"

"N-NO WAY! I mean, I'm going to eventually, but I kinda wanna work up to it slowly, y'know?" Sonic looked at Tails as if he was a trap ready to spring, "You're not gonna to tell her are ya?"

Tails just laughed, "Relax Sonic, I won't tell"

"Good!" Sonic sighed, relieved. "If she found out I was even thinking that, she'd be trying to set up a wedding before we even got home!"

They both had a good laugh about that. Sonic was just happy to see that Tails had cheered up a little, though he could tell there was still a lot of hurt left in the kid.

Suddenly, Chris's voice came over the speaker in the room, "Attention, all crew members, please come to the bridge. Mobius is in sight, and we will be landing within the hour."

"I guess that's our cue", Sonic said as he hopped off the bed. Tails simply nodded and followed Sonic to the one room he had not been able to force himself to enter since that horrible day.

* * *

As Amy and Cream walked the path that would lead them to Tails' house, they talked about all of the foods they had made for the occasion. Amy had baked a pie, and Cream had baked some cake.

"With all this food," Cream joked, "he's going to gain some weight!"

They continued walking and talking until a gust of wind accompanied by a blue blur interrupted their musings. Amy knew exactly what it meant, and waited for Sonic to come back and greet them. Sure enough, the blur turned around and stopped just a few feet in front of the girls.

"Hey there!" Sonic greeted them, "What's up?"

"We're heading over to Tails' house for a picnic," Cream replied.

Sonic seemed excited that prospect, "Awesome! Mind if I tag along?"

The two girls looked at each other. Amy seemed torn, while Cream just looked kind of sad. Amy finally turned back to Sonic and spoke, "Uuumm, weellll… we were kind of planning on it just being the three of us, if you don't mind." Amy could hardly believe what she was saying. Sonic was offering to spend time with her, and she was turning him down? Well, she would have other opportunities to spend time with her favorite hedgehog, and this was important.

"Eh, no problem! I understand," Sonic told them. He actually understood completely, and was just going to check on Tails, himself. His little bro hadn't come out of his workshop at all in the days since they had returned home, and while Sonic didn't think Tails would do anything stupid, he had made it his duty to check in now and again to make sure that depression didn't get the better of the fox. If the girls had something they wanted to do alone with Tails, he trusted them enough to let him know if there was a problem. "Well, I've gotta run! See ya later!" and with that he was off like a flash.

When the girls finally got to Tails' home in the Mystic Ruins they found him hard at work repairing the Hyper Tornado. It was one of the few things he had not bothered repairing while he was on the Blue Typhoon. He had spent most of his time since he got back trying to figure out what could be salvaged from the larger ship, and now that Tails had catalogued every salvageable item he could find he decided to work on something a bit more mundane before taking on the monumental task of disassembling the Typhoon. He would eventually build a new ship from the parts he salvaged, and its design would likely be very similar to the first. Maybe he would call it the Green Typhoon this time, in Cosmo's memory… maybe he shouldn't think about that so much.

Tails' thoughts were interrupted by Amy's shouting, "Hiiiiii Taaaaiiiillls!" He looked up to see Amy, Cream and Cheese walking towards him with baskets of food in their hands. He smiled at them, though he wasn't really sure if he felt like having company over at the moment.

"Hi there," Tails said, returning their greeting.

"How are you feeling?" Cream asked him in a slightly worried tone.

Tails sighed. Sonic and the others had been stopping by a lot lately to make sure he was okay, and while he appreciated his friends' efforts, Tails really just wanted to be alone for a while. He didn't want to be rude, but he decided just to go straight to the point. "You know you guys don't have to check up on me. I'm fine, really."

"Tails," Amy sighed, "We know you're still depressed about Cosmo. We just wanna help."

"Yeah!" Cream added, "She was our friend, too, and I know she wouldn't want us to leave you alone right now!"

"She really liked you, yknow!" Amy finished

"Chow, Chow." Cheese squeaked, nodding his head.

"I know," Tails said quietly. He was pretty sure they didn't know how much he and Cosmo had really meant to each other, but the three girls did hang out together a lot when she was alive. Maybe they understood more than he thought.

"We brought you some snacks," Cream told him.

"Hope you're hungry!" Amy added.

Truth be told he _was_ hungry. Tails had forgotten to eat breakfast this morning, and in fact he had been skipping lots of meals lately. Some days he had found himself not eating until he became light-headed. It wasn't that he was doing it on purpose, it was just that after another fitful night's sleep filled with dreams he didn't want to remember he often wasn't hungry in the mornings. Tails would tell himself he'd eat later, but later would often end up being at 1 or 2 o'clock when his stomach started hurting. The fox decided that maybe he was glad to have company after all.

Tails hopped off of his perch on the Hyper Tornado to talk to the girls. "Sorry I was so rude," he apologized "I've just been a little tense lately. Let's go!"

They sat down on a little bench outside of Tails' workshop and laid out the food. As they ate, the three talked about what they had been doing since they gotten back home. Tails, obviously, had been working the whole time, and more than once he had to stop himself from rambling on about the technicalities of rebuilding a jet engine. Cream had been helping her mother bake cakes and other treats, which she suspected were for Vector and the Chaotix. Amy had just been cleaning her house and tending her garden, which had become over grown while they were away. Of course, she had also been shopping. "Oh, and Cream, I was just in that new store they opened up a little while ago. They have the cutest dresses!"

"Which store was that?" Cream asked.

"You know, the one I wanted to take you and Cos…" Amy cut herself off before she finished, and mentally berated herself for saying something so stupid. Cream gave a little sniffle and looked like she was about to cry. The three girls had enjoyed shopping together, and had really been looking forward to looking for something Cosmo could wear to really impress Tails when they got back. Oddly enough, it was Tails who turned to comfort the bunny.

"Don't be sad, Cream, " he said, "I had a lot of places I wanted to show her, too." He smiled at her as he continued, "Cosmo's seed is growing really well. I think that means she would have really liked it here!" Tails was surprised that he could talk about her without crying for once; maybe because he knew that he wasn't alone, that Cosmo's other friends missed her, too.

Cream looked at Tails and smiled, and they resumed their conversation as they normally would have. It seemed that things had finally started to get back to normal for the Mobians. Of course, normal around here meant that things never quite stayed the same for long, which was how they liked it. It was good to be home.

* * *

_Author's Note: See, I told ya things would start looking up for the little fox! This chapter sort of serves as the end of the first part of my story, which primarily fills the gaps of episode 78 in. Tune in tomorrow when we leave the Sonic X canon and start with what happened in the time after the final episode._


	4. The More Things Change

**The More Things Change…**

On Earth they say that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Perhaps the reverse could be said to be true as well. In the weeks after Chris left for his home world, Mobius seemed like the same place it had always been to the casual observer, but it seemed to Sonic and the others that somehow things had changed, and still were changing. For Tails, the world felt a little lonelier. He tried hard to go back to the way things were before, and though he still fought with feelings of bitterness and guilt and occasionally found himself crying in his sleep, he found that he was slowly able to return to a somewhat normal version of himself. Knuckles, having lots of free time while the Master Emerald was in pieces, had started going on treasure hunting expeditions with Rouge. To his surprise, he was starting to find that he really _enjoyed_ her company (or maybe he had simply stopped pretending that he didn't), though he would never admit it. Vector, on the other hand, was happy to admit his feelings for Vanilla, who had helped him and the other Chaotix rebuild their agency, and Cream was happy to have Charmy and Espio around when Vector and her mother went off alone together.

Sonic thought of all of these changes just as he was about to make one of his own. He had finally decided he was ready to stop running from Amy. Tails had been teasing him about it since they had gotten back home, asking him when he was finally going to tell her. He had been avoiding it for a little over a month now, not sure how he should begin, until Tails said something to him that finally gave him the resolve to do it.

The two had been up on the roof of Tails' workshop gazing up at the stars. Tails had once again teased Sonic about how he was too chicken to talk to Amy about how he felt, and Sonic had once again told his little bro he'd get to it when he was good and ready. Tails had laughed at that, like he always did, but then he suddenly became very serious.

"I mean it, Sonic", he said as he looked into the sky. "You should talk to her. You think you've got plenty of time, but you never know. She could disappear tomorrow, and then what would you do"?

Sonic sat bolt upright and looked at Tails, who was now gazing at the sky with a faraway look in his eyes. Sonic knew that he was thinking about the one who had disappeared from his life. One who had been taken from him, from all of them, very suddenly. Could that really happen to Amy? Could he wake up one day and find that she wasn't there anymore? The thought scared him more than he wanted to admit, and he resolved to talk to her the very next day.

This is the reason he found himself running up to Amy's door and knocking that day. When Amy answered, she was pleasantly surprised to see Sonic standing at the door.

"Sonic! What are you doing here"?

Sonic leaned back and gave her his usual cocky smile "I just dropped by to see how you were doin', Ames".

Now she was really surprised. Sonic _never_ just dropped by for no reason, but she really didn't care why he was here, so long as he was here with her. She motioned for him to enter and said, "Come on in!"

Sonic stepped into the house a little nervously. He sat down on her couch while she grabbed something for them to drink, and then sat down next to him. "So how've things been around here?" he asked the pink hedgehog. It didn't surprise him that this was the start of a very long conversation. What did surprise him was that he was enjoying it. They talked about a lot of things; their hope that Chris had gotten back home safely, the events of the past few weeks, and the things they had been thinking about recently. Amy even let Sonic in on the fact that she really missed Cosmo far more than she had let on. Apparently, she and Cream had officially taken Cosmo in as 'one of the girls', and had really been looking forward to taking her shopping and hanging out under more peaceful circumstances when they got home. The picnic that she and Cream had taken Tails on to make him feel better was as much to help themselves as it was to help him. This lead to their thoughts to Tails himself. Amy was still a little worried about Tails, and even though Sonic assured her that he was doing okay, he secretly was still a little worried himself. Another thing he was worried about, but that he didn't bother to hide, was Eggman. The doctor hadn't caused any trouble since they had gotten back, and while Sonic would like to think that Eggman might have turned over a new leaf after all they'd been through, he sincerely doubted it.

Almost as if on cue, an explosion boomed in the distance. Sonic and Amy rushed out of the house to see one of Eggman's battleships attacking Angel Island in the distance. They really should have known this was coming. Things never stayed slow around here for long.

Just as he was about to leave, Sonic stopped and turned to Amy. "Hey Ames? When I get through with this, how 'bout I take you out to dinner or somethin'"?

Amy was completely speechless for a moment. "_You're_ asking _me _for a date?"

"Well… yeah." Sonic responded nervously. He hated feeling like this. He was never nervous about anything, and he would never show it if he was. Why was this any different? Especially since he knew what her answer would be. As expected, she threw her arms around him in one of her trademark death-grip hugs. "Yes Sonic the Hedgehog, of course I'll go out with you"!

"Great!" he said, pulling out of the hug with some effort "I'll see you later, then"! And with that, he sped off towards the fight. Amy just stared after him as he left her in the dust, as usual. She sighed somewhat contentedly. The more things changed around here, the more they stayed the same.

* * *

_Author's Note: What's this? Action? In this story? Couldn't be, could it? Well, I had to live up to the 'Adventure' part of the description at some point._


	5. Old Tricks

**Old Tricks**

Sonic made his way to Tails' workshop in the Mystic Ruins and was not surprised to see Tails himself waiting with the X-Tornado.

"Ready to go, Tails?" Sonic asked as he stopped in front of the plane.

"You bet!" The fox responded. Sonic jumped onto the wing of the Jet as Tails took off toward the former resting place of the Master Emerald. When they arrived they found Knuckles and Rouge surrounded by about sixty robots, and a battleship with Eggman's grinning logo on the front was still dropping more.

"Tails, do you still have the Chaos Emeralds I gave you?" Sonic asked. He had given three of them to Tails for safe keeping. He never liked keeping them all in one place, but wanted them to all be in places he could get to quickly if he needed them. Thus, giving the white, yellow, and light blue gems to Tails had been the most obvious choice. It also allowed the fox to study hem a bit.

"I've got them right here, Sonic", Tails answered, "but I think the power that they received from the planet eggs is almost used up! They'll only be good for one more super transformation until the Master Emerald is repaired."

Sonic looked down at the robots below. Knuckles and Rouge had taken out a few of them, but the battleship was releasing more of them faster than the two could blow them up. At this rate, they would be overwhelmed quickly. He turned to Tails and smiled as he said, "No time like the present!"

Sonic quickly assessed the situation and decided on a course of action. "Lets take out that ship first", he instructed Tails, who nodded and gave him a thumbs up. Sonic took out his Chaos Emeralds and Tails handed Sonic the ones he'd been keeping. Sonic felt the positive energies of the Emeralds flowing into him as he transformed into Super Sonic before jumping off of the wing and flying full speed at the carrier. Between the two of them, the floating battleship went down fairly quickly, and Super Sonic struck the final blow as he flew through its main engine and destroyed it. Unfortunately, the ship made one final, desperate attempt to destroy its foes by launching all of its remaining missiles. Sonic was able to destroy most of them, but a few made it through his defenses, and a lucky shot blew one of the wings off the X-Tornado. Fortunately, Tails was able to land the jet relatively smoothly, and even managed to run over a few of the ground troops in the process.

It was strange. Dr. Eggman usually liked to be here to oversee these types of schemes directly, but Sonic had seen no sign of the mad doctor while he tore through the ship, and no ships tried to escape from the exploding craft. Was he really not here? Sonic didn't have too much time to think about it. With the carrier out of the way, only the remaining 40 or so ground troops were left. Knuckles was pounding on the ones closest to the Master Emerald's alter, while Rouge was picking them off randomly to try and create a distraction. Tails was dealing with the ones around his plane, but was slowly finding himself overwhelmed. Tails had never been very good in hand-to-hand combat, so Sonic decided that that was where he was needed first. He flew down and smashed into a robot that was about to take a pot shot at the two tailed fox, and then started ramming through the others in an outward spiral pattern. Tails barely had time to thank him before he was off smashing the ones around Knuckles. When the last machine had been destroyed, Sonic powered down. He looked at the now useless Chaos Emeralds as he walked over to Knuckles, who was having a nasty gash tended by Rouge.

"You alright, Knucklehead?" He asked the battered Echidna.

"I'm fine, Sonic." Knuckles groaned "Eggman's just up to his old tricks, that's all."

Rouge explained what had happened to Sonic, "The Master Emerald's just about regained all of its power, and Knuckie here was just about to start putting it back together when those goons attacked!"

"Hmph," the echidna snorted "Even when the Master Emerald's in PIECES I can't leave it unguarded."

"I wonder what old Egghead had planned for them?" Sonic mused as he stared at the shards of the Master Emerald, "I guess it couldn't have been anything big, since he didn't even bother to show his face!". He knew there was no point in worrying about it too much, so he decided to turn back to more important things. "Hey Tails!" Sonic yelled as he walked over to where his friend was standing, "You alright?" Tails was staring at the wreckage of the X-Tornado with that bitter look that Sonic had seen so often since they had returned from space. "Man," Sonic said, "this'll probably take some time to fix."

"It was just like last time, Sonic," Tails said.

That reply didn't make much sense to Sonic, "What do ya mean? What last time?"

"Before," Tails answered, "when I was trying to keep Shadow from hurting Cosmo. I was doing all right as long as I had the Blue Typhoon's security systems on my side, and I even managed to launch him out of the cannon! But once I ran out of machines to back me up, I was totally useless! If Dark Oak hadn't shown up when he did, Shadow would've killed her for sure, and there wouldn't have been a thing I could have done to stop him!"

"Tails, you're not useless, Shadow's just super powerful. He beat all of us!" Sonic said, trying to comfort his friend.

"Maybe," Tails continued, "but it was the same thing here! Once I was thrown out of the X-Tornado I was useless! I only managed to take out two robots before they overpowered me, and that was only because I had a piece of scrap metal to swing at them! If you hadn't saved me, Sonic, I'd probably be dead! I could keep going, Sonic. This isn't the first time you've had to bail me out of a fight."

"Tails, ya know I'm always glad to help you out." Sonic argued, "It's no big deal!"

"That's not the point, Sonic," Tails sighed.

"So stop cryin' and do somethin' about it!" Knuckles said as he walked over to the wreckage.

"Knuckles!" Sonic shouted as he turned angrily to the echidna. He was about to say more until Tails spoke up.

"What do you mean, Knuckles?"

Knuckles explained himself, "You've been spending so much time exercising your head in that garage of yours that you've been neglecting your other muscles. Heck, you're probably weaker now than you were a few months ago!" He was right. Tails didn't go out running with Sonic or playing with the others very often anymore, and this recent battle showed it. The fox was a lot sorer than he should have been, even given that he'd just crashed his jet.

"Sonic," Knuckles said, turning to the hedgehog, "If the little guy really wants to be a better fighter, I say we train him! He's already proven that he's got the heart, now he just needs the muscle to back it up!" He then turned back to Tails "Whaddaya say, kid? Its not often you get a chance to train with the best fighters on the planet!"

Tails thought about this for a moment. He had never liked fighting. He just didn't think he was good at it. Sonic had taught him a few moves over the years, but he hadn't had many chances to practice. He hated this worthless feeling even more, though. He wanted to be able to protect the people he cared about when they needed him, and that was exactly what he was going to. He had made his decision. "Okay, I'm in! How about you, Sonic?"

"Sure Tails," Sonic replied, "Sounds like fun. When do we start?"

"We'll meet back here around this time tomorrow," Knuckles said, "I'd like to get the Master Emerald put back together before it gets dark. What should we do about that?" he asked pointing to the wrecked jet.

"Don't worry about it," Tails replied, "I'll stop by later in the Hyper Tornado to tow it home."

"Well, then, I guess I'll see you guys tomorrow then," Sonic said. "For now, I've got a dinner date to keep!" Before anyone could ask any questions he didn't want to answer, the blue blur took off toward Amy's house.

"Dinner date?" Knuckles asked, "What the heck does he mean by that?"

Tails couldn't help but laugh as he started spinning his tails to speed home. He was glad to see that Sonic had finally worked up his nerve, and excited about what would happen come tomorrow.

* * *

_Author's Note: How do serious authors do it? Every time I look back at my previous chapters I find things that I'd like to change. _

_Anyhow, it'll probably be a few days before I update again since I will be without computer for a while. I think I'll use that time to do more editing, but I promise I'll post the next chapter by Thursday at least._


	6. Pace Yourself

**Pace Yourself**

The group met as planned the next day to start Tails' training. All five of those who had been there yesterday were here now, and Amy had tagged along with Sonic to watch him and to be on hand in case anyone got hurt. Sonic, Knuckles and Tails gathered on a stone courtyard near the newly restored Master Emerald as they tried to decide how best to go about this. They decided that starting with the basics would be best, so Sonic and Knuckles drilled Tails on basic jumping and spinning attacks. Tails re-mastered these fairly easily, and even managed to discover his own variation of Sonic's homing attack using his tails to propel him forward. Unfortunately, his trial run of the new move ran him smack into a wall.

"Whoa, there Tails," Sonic said as he and Amy ran to the dazed fox, "are you hurt?"

"Just my pride, Sonic, " Tails said as he sat up. Amy was checking his head to make sure he wasn't seriously injured. Tails knew he wasn't, but he was going to have a nasty headache in the morning. "I can believe I just ran into a wall!"

"I think you're just tired," Knuckles told him. "We've been at this for almost an hour now."

"Maybe I should work on my endurance next," suggested Tails.

Knuckles thought about this for a second, "That's a good idea, but I think an hour is about enough for one day. Same time tomorrow, guys?" The others agreed, and they went their separate ways for the night.

* * *

Amy had often said that there were certain hours of the morning that only Tails was crazy enough to be awake for. The next morning was a prime demonstration of this, as Tails had gotten up even earlier than normal because there were lots of things he wanted to do that day. He had eaten his breakfast, watered his plant, and had just finished going over the original Blue Typhoon design to see what could be improved upon for the Green Typhoon's design (he had decided to keep the name he'd thought up earlier) when he saw Sonic rushing toward his house.

"Hey, Tails!" Sonic said as he entered the house "Are ya feelin' okay?"

"I'm fine, Sonic," Tails reassured him, "It'll take more than a little bump on the head to keep me down!"

Sonic seemed happy to hear this, "So, how about we go out and do something fun today?"

"Like what?" Tails asked.

"I dunno," Sonic answered, "you pick."

It was at that moment that Tails decided to start his training early. "Lets go for a run," he said.

Sonic was happily surprised to hear those words "All right!" he said, "Now your talkin'!"

They walked up to the end of Tails' runway and got into a starting position.

"On your mark!" Tails said.

"Get seeeeeeet!" Sonic continued

"GO!" They shouted as they sped away from the workshop. Sonic started out at what was a fairly easy pace for him. When he ran with Tails he usually tried to make sure that the young fox stayed just a bit behind him, but today he was surprised to see Tails was right next to him.

"Wow, Tails! You've sure got a lot of energy today!" Sonic told him.

"C'mon Sonic!" Tails replied, "I know you can go faster than this. Show me what you got!"

Sonic laughed, "If you say so!" and increased his speed. With some effort, Tails managed to catch up to him again, and Sonic increased his speed even more. He was again surprised when he looked back and saw Tails gaining on him with a look of determination on his face.

"Looks like he's going to make me work for it this time!" Sonic said to himself. He had never seen Tails move so fast! He decided it was time to see what Tails could really do. Sonic started dashing at top speed, and slowed down only when he realized that he had run pretty far away from the two-tailed fox. Sonic slowed just enough to let Tails catch up, and then let Tails hold position behind him while he estimated their speed. He figured they were currently going just over three-quarters of Sonic's top speed. He looked back at Tails again and saw that the young fox was quickly beginning to tire out. Sonic slowed down as Tails did, and they eventually came to a stop by a lake. Tails dropped to the ground and flopped on his back, breathing heavily from the strain. "You alright, bro?" Sonic asked him.

"Yeah," was all Tails could say between breaths. He hadn't realized just how hard he had been pushing himself until he stopped. Tails had wanted to see what his own top speed was if he pushed himself to the limit, but now he was regretting that decision. He felt sick, like he was going to throw up at any moment.

"That was some amazing speed, but you've gotta be careful, buddy!" Sonic said as he knelt next to his friend, "You can't just blow all your energy in one shot like that. You've gotta pace yourself or you'll burn out."

Tails just nodded. They rested there for another half hour to make sure Tails had gotten his strength back, and then headed back toward the workshop at a much more leasurely pace.

When everyone arrived at the emerald alter that evening, Knuckles set Tails to work on several different exercises meant to get his endurance up. The most interesting of these was when Knuckles had Tails carry Amy (who was a little annoyed to be pried away from Sonic) while he flew for as long as he could. It reminded Sonic of the old days when it was just him and Tails on the road together. Sonic would lead the way as they went off to save the world, and Tails would help by air-lifting Sonic over obstacles and hazards on their way to Dr. Eggman's base.

At the end of the hour, they decided that it would be best to continue as they had been: alternating between exercise and combat training for one hour each day. Tails workouts continued like that for a couple of weeks, and everyone noticed an increase in his speed and strength. His fighting prowess was a different story, however. He was getting better, but only by little bits at a time.

"Its beacuse you're not playing to his strengths, boys," Rouge finally said one day as Knuckles and Sonic argued about how they should continue.

"Huh? What do you mean, Rouge?" Knuckles asked her.

"Sonic's strengths are his speed and quick reflexes," she said pointing at the hedgehog. She then turned to the echidna "Knuckie's strength lies in brute force and pure stubbornness." She finally turned to the fox "Your strengths are your big brain and the fact that you can fly," she turned back to the others and said "I really don't think you boys can help him any more than you already have, being land-bound and all."

"And you're saying you can do better?" Knuckles asked somewhat hotly.

"I'm sure she could," Amy said as she walked over to the group, "question is, why would she? This is kinda out of character for you to just offer to help for nothing in return."

"Weeeelll," Rouge began, "I've been watchin' the kid while you guys were messin' around. He's got a lot of potential, and I hate to see potential go to waste. Besides," she said as she took one of Tails' hair spikes and twirled it in her fingers, "this guy's gonna be a real cutie in a few years, and its always nice to have a handsome man owe you a favor!" Tails blushed furiously at her words.

"Now wait just a darn minute!" Knuckles roared.

Rouge laughed at his obvious jealousy, "Relax Knuckie! I'm not _that_ bad!"

"So where do we start?" Tails asked, regaining his composure.

"Right this way!" Rouge said as she flew into the air. Tails twirled his tails and flew up after her.

"Now that we're alone," she said when Tails reached her, "lemme explain some things to ya. What you really need to concentrate on are your tactics. You might not be as strong as Knuckles or as fast as Sonic, but a guy like you should easily be able to outsmart the both of them. Combine that with some aerial expertise, and you should be keeping up with those boys in no time! So let's get to work!"

They started going over the basics of aerial combat, and though Tails had to make some adjustments due to having a different mode of flight than Rouge (propellers rather than wings) he quickly got the hang of it. She would also occasionally ask Tails what he would do in specific combat scenarios. Most of the time she liked the answers he gave, though she found that he sometimes overcomplicated things, and she would have to point out that there was an easier way to achieve the goal in mind. Rouge also made sure that he did not stop his physical training while he answered, since she knew that he would have to be able to think on his feet. After their hour was up, they went home for the night, and Rouge said that she expected Tails to be ready for more tomorrow.

* * *

_Author's Note: Well, guess I lied about not updating, as I have found a computer to use after all._

_On a side note, I'm really not sure if I like the way this chapter turned out. It just feels to much like filler to me, and doesn't seem to have a whole lot of point. This is the only chapter in the whole story that's like this, though, and I can't think of any other way to say the things I needed to say. Tune in tomorrow, same fox time, same fox chanel as Tails continues his training, and gets a surprise._


	7. Rise Above

**Rise Above**

When he got home that evening, Tails started thinking about what else he could do to give himself an edge out there. A thought had occurred to him while he was training with Rouge. She had said that they all needed to train to their strengths, but there was more to it than that. They each had something to augment their strengths a bit. Sonic had shoes that were specifically designed to help him run without getting tired. Knuckles had spiked gloves to give his punches extra power, and Rouge's boots were tipped with metal to strengthen her drill kicks. Even Shadow had needed an extra hand, using his gauntlets to keep him from loosing power too quickly. What could Tails use? He looked down at his shoes and suddenly had an idea.

The concept was simple one, but it would allow him to gain quite a bit of speed and power if done correctly. Rouge had warned him when they practiced diving to be careful of how fast and how far he let himself fall, since failing to stop in time would likely mean an untimely end. "But what if I can use that to my advantage?" Tails asked himself. He started drawing up plans for a new pair of shoes, similar to those that had been designed for Sonic. These, however, would be designed specifically to absorb shock. He worked madly into the night on his new creation, wanting nothing so much as to test it out. When he was done, it was very early in the morning. Tails knew he should sleep, but was just too excited, and he didn't really feel like risking the nightmares that sleep sometimes brought, anyhow. He eyed the shoes happily before trying them on. He didn't like to brag, but sometimes his creations amazed even him! Tails could barely feel the ground beneath his feet; it almost felt like he was walking on air. It was actually very comfortable, and for that reason alone Tails wondered why he hadn't thought of this long ago. "Now to test them out!" he said to himself.

Tails jumped into the air and hit the ground. He hardly felt a thing, so he decided to fly up a little ways and let himself fall. He barely felt the impact as he hit the ground! He flew up higher and higher, testing the limits of his new creation as he fell with progressively more force. The feeling of falling didn't bother him since he'd long go gotten used to it while flying his planes. At about 25 feet up, he found that he couldn't keep his balance when he landed and fell forward, hitting his hands against the hard runway with a painful slap. Tails decided that he might also need some gloves that performed the way his shoes did, and wasted no time creating them. They would be very similar to his old gloves, but with a metal ring that clipped around the wrists. He completed them within hours, and soon found himself back on the runway dropping himself again. Tails found that he started to feel the pain of impact with the ground at about 40 feet up, and by 55 feet the pain became bad enough that he decided to make that his uppermost limit. He was afraid he might actually break something if he went any higher.

Next he decided to try something a little different. He flew up about 20 feet and then used his Tails to propel himself downward into the ground. This hurt quite a bit when he landed, but Tails happily noted that the force of his accelerated kick had actually cracked the pavement!

Tails couldn't wait to show his new toys to the others. When the time had finally come, he sped off toward Angel Island to meet with Knuckles and the others. Knuckles and Rouge were already there, and Sonic and Amy were not far behind. Amy, of course, was the first to notice the change in Tails' appearance, "Nice shoes, Tails! Oh and I love the matching gloves!"

"What's with the change of duds, Tails?" Sonic asked.

"They don't just look nice, Sonic," Tails explained, "They're designed to help me when I'm fighting in the air." He turned to Rouge and continued, "Remember how you told me to be careful how far I fell when I dive? Well watch THIS!" With that, he flew into the air about 30 feet up and let himself fall. Sonic jumped and caught the fox before he hit the ground, but to his surprise Tails seemed unhappy to have been rescued. "What're you doing, Sonic?" Tails asked with an annoyed look.

"What am _I_ doing? What were _you_ doing? Are ya trying to kill yourself or something?" Sonic actually seemed worried that this might be the case, and Tails supposed he couldn't blame his friend for worrying. After all, he had been depressed after Cosmo's death, and since Tails hadn't told anyone about his latest little project, what were they supposed to think?

"Okay," Tails said when they got back to the others "here's the deal. I haven't gone crazy or anything, I was just trying to demonstrate my new shoes. I call them 'impact breakers'. They're designed to keep me safe when I land from a fall, which means that I can hit things a lot harder without getting hurt. Watch!" He flew up again and let himself fall to the ground, this time without interruption. Sonic had a knot in his stomach as he watched Tails fall, especially after he landed with a loud THUD. He half expected to see his little brother splattered on the pavement, but to his surprise Tails landed gracefully on his feet and was completely unharmed. To his left, Sonic could hear Rouge laughing.

"You see?" she asked, "I told you he'd be a better fighter using his brain!" With that, they decided to get the day's training under way.

* * *

Rouge and the others were quite happy with the progress Tails was making in the weeks after that. He had developed a few of his own moves to go with the ones his friends had taught him, such as his now trademark dropping kick, and another move where he spun around and smacked his foes with his tails rapidly. Seeing Tails' progress, Sonic and the others eventually decided it was time to take things to the next level. Each week, at the end of a training session, Tails would have a mock battle with one of his three trainers. It was one thing to go through the motions of a battle; it was another thing completely to fight one. They went easy on him at first, occasionally giving him advice and pointing out the areas he was weak in. Once he started winning a few of these matches, though, they decided it was time to just let him have it.

Tails didn't win these battles very often, but he really wasn't expected to. It wasn't so important that he won the fight, as it was that he learned from the experience and improved. He beat knuckles fairly regularly by tricking him, but Sonic and Rouge were a bit smarter than that, and rarely fell for the same tactic twice. Tails remained determined, though, and the few victories he had under his belt were hard-won and well deserved. Little did he know, however, that the real test was about to begin.

* * *

As the group was gearing up for another hour of training, a loud crash was heard from the far end of the island. Rouge and Tails, already in the air at the time, flew higher to investigate.

"Its some kind of giant robot!" Tails called down to them.

"And its got Eggy's name written all over it!" Called rouge as she pointed out the large, grinning Eggman insignia on the front.

"We're ready for him!" Amy said as she pulled out her oversized hammer.

Knuckles took up a position on top of the Master Emerald and shouted, "He won't get this while I'm around!"

Tails was still up in the air, watching the machine. He had no giant machine of his own to rely on this time, so he was just going to have to use his brain and his skills. He analyzed the robot coming toward them, looking for weaknesses. The beginnings of a simple plan came started forming in his head. If this worked the way he wanted it to, the machine would be down before it even had a chance to do any damage.

Tails flew down to Sonic and the others and shouted, "Hey guys, I've got an idea!"

"What's up Tails?" Sonic asked as the group gathered around the fox.

The large mechanical walker burst through the trees of the forest surrounding their training area just as Tails finished the details of his little plan. Dr. Eggman's voice came over a loudspeaker in the machine's head. "So nice to see you all here! Give up the Master Emerald now and I'll leave peacefully!"

"And why would we do that, Eggman?" Knuckles asked, shaking his fist.

Eggman answered Knuckles' question with one of his own, "How about this?" At his words, a vast array of weaponry appeared from all over the mech's body and pointed right at the group, "Is this enough reason for you? My Egg Destroyer has enough firepower to take out this whole island!"

Sonic wasted no time putting Tail's plan into action. "We've had worse odds before! Come and get it, Egghead!" he said as he ran toward the robot.

"You asked for it, Sonic!" Eggman shouted as he let off a barrage of missiles at the hedgehog. Sonic dodged them easily.

"Too slooooooow," Sonic jeered at the doctor, who only unleashed more firepower on him.

"Stand still you obnoxious rodent!" He yelled as he continued his assault. While Eggman was distracted by Sonic, Tails and Rouge quietly flew up behind the machine and got ready to attack. Tails flew up high to gain speed for one of his falling kicks, and Rouge started the spin for her drill kick. Rouge had taught Tails that stealth was just as important as power, and in this case the element of Surprise proved to be their greatest strength. The two timed their attack so that both would hit the back of the robot at the same time, and the tremendous combined force caused the machine to lose its balance. The surprised doctor screamed pathetically as his machine hit the ground, detonating several of the missiles that he had just attempted to fire. Knuckles and Amy were on the thing almost as soon as it hit, pounding away at the hatch in the robot's back that surely contained Eggman. They were only mildly surprised when the doors flew open and the Egg Mobile shot out and away from them.

"Come back here you coward!" Amy yelled at the retreating craft.

"No, I think that's quite enough for today, thanks," Eggman shouted back "But you'll be sorry when I get back!" With that, he flew off into the sky, wondering when that annoying bunch had become so organized. He'd have to take that into account next time.

"That was too easy!" Knuckles laughed as he watched the little pod float away.

"Only because of Tails' quick thinking!" Sonic added, giving Tails a thumbs up.

"Not to mention a nice kick!" Rouge said, "I'm pretty impressed, kid."

Tails blushed from all the attention and said, "Aww, it was nothing. You guys could probably have handled it without me. Hey, why don't we get back to training?"

"In what?" Rouge asked him, "You've improved quite a bit since we started this, and after that little display, I really don't know what else any of us could teach you. The only way for you to get better now is through experience."

"I'm sure Eggman will give you plenty of chances for that!" said Knuckles.

"Well, my work is done here, so I'll be seein' you guys!" Rouge said as she flew up. She turned to Knuckles and gave him a wink before leaving, which made him blush.

"Well little bro, I guess that means your training's finished!" Sonic said as he ruffled Tails' hair "how about you and me go out to celebrate!"

"Hey! Wait for me!" Amy yelled, "I'm comming, too, Sonic!"

"Hey, what about me?" Knuckles shouted.

"Don't worry, Knuckles, we'll bring you back something!" Sonic called back as he and the others sped off.

* * *

_Author's Note: Thus ends part two of my story. The next part will be both the final and longest part, and the part that all of this has been woring up to. Hope you're all enjoying it so far!_


	8. Anniversary

**Anniversary**

The day had finally come. It had been a full year since the fall of the Metarex, and Sonic and his friends had decided to get together to celebrate the occasion and remember those who were no longer with them.

Tails was not exactly enthusiastic about any of this. He had spent most of the year trying not to think about that day, and he would much rather mourn its passing than celebrate it. Tails had agreed to come, though. Sonic had said that Cosmo wouldn't have wanted him to mope about, and he was probably right. The fox had already cried himself to sleep the night before (something he thought he'd gotten past), and he didn't much feel like continuing that pattern this morning.

"Better just get this over with" he sighed as he hopped down from the wing of his latest creation. It was a large transforming vehicle that Tails had been developing called the Mecha Tornado. Currently, the vehicle could transform into a jet and a walker mech, just like the X-Tornado. Eventually though, it would be able to transform into a submarine as well, and once he finished testing the rockets and shields he had just installed it would be able to travel into space. It would be the ultimate vehicle, capable of traveling on land, sea, air and space with no problem at all. With one last look at his machine, Tails grabbed the food that he was asked to bring and headed for the door. He was about to leave when he remembered his plant on the table.

Cosmo's seed had grown rapidly over the past year and was now more than half his height, but strangely enough the plant's single bud had not bloomed. Tails had recently transplanted it to a larger pot, and was hoping that he had not somehow killed it. The plant was a species that neither he nor anyone he had ever talked to had seen before, so Tails wasn't sure if he was caring for it properly or not. He walked over to the plant and gently stroked its leaves. Every inch of the plant reminded him of Cosmo. The leaves looked and felt just like her hair had when he'd last touched it, and the bud looked like the ones on the sides of her head. It even smelled like her, giving off a calming aroma that always made him feel a little happier. Tails had really wanted to take the flower out with him to the celebration, but it had grown so large that he worried that if he flew with it he might damage it somehow. Instead, he filled up his watering can and showered the plant with water before he left.

* * *

The party was just getting started when Tails got to Amy's house. Sonic, who had been spending more and more time at Amy's lately, was just finishing up the decorations, and Cream was setting out the food she and her mother had made. On the table sat two photos, which were meant to represent those who were gone. One was a photo of Chris and Helen Thorndyke with their two children. Chris had sent the photo about a month ago using the machine he had made to transport himself from his world to theirs. It was odd to think that that he had grown up and had children in the short time since he'd left, but really it was only a short time to the Mobians. On Earth a full 12 years had passed, as it would for every Mobian year. The other picture was a copy of the one Tails kept in his room, the one taken during the party that Cosmo had thrown. Tails tried not to look at that one. He didn't need any reminders that she wasn't here.

Another person that wasn't going to be there was Shadow. He had recently reappeared, or at least there had been several sightings of him. They probably would have invited him to the party if anyone had been able to find him, though he would never have come. That was perfectly fine with Tails. He had never quite forgiven Shadow for trying to kill Cosmo aboard the Blue Typhoon. Being at this party was hard enough, but being here with Shadow would have been outright unbearable. The last thing he needed to think about was how that jerk had survived while Cosmo had not.

Tails tried very hard to put all of these bitter thoughts into the back of his mind as he made his way to the kitchen. Once there, he pulled all of the chilidog ingredients out of his bag and started cooking. In no time flat he was surrounded by Sonic and Knuckles, the latter of which had just walked in the door.

"Hey little bro!" Sonic said cheerily "Didn't see ya come in!"

"You sure smelled the food I had with me, though" Tails laughed, "but you'll have to wait 'til they're done and everyone gets here."

"Sure you've got enough there, squirt?" Knuckles asked

"Don't worry, guys! I've got enough here to feed an army." Which would be just enough to feed their little group for the evening. Tails couldn't say he blamed his friends for their vulture-like behavior. He loved chilidogs just as much as they did, and could even out-eat Sonic when he was really hungry.

The party was fairly successful, with lots of eating, games, and good conversation. Amy spent most of the evening in Sonic's arms when he wasn't horsing around, while Rouge flirted with a slightly embarrassed Knuckles. The Chaotix hadn't been able to make it, so Tails was keeping Cream and Cheese company, and they were currently involved in a game of air tag (which is very much like regular tag, only played while flying). The three of them were completely out of breath by the time they decided to stop, so they landed in Amy's garden and sat down on the grass.

"That was fun, Tails!" the little bunny said to the fox, "We haven't done that in a long time"!

"CHOOOOOWWW!" Cheese agreed excitedly. They were right. He hadn't really let himself go like that very often since they had gotten back from outer space, and Tails found that he kind of missed it. Maybe he was finally starting to really get over what had happened out there. Then, of course, he started to actually think about what happened out there, and he realized he'd probably never really be over it. The memories didn't really hurt as much as they used to, though, usually feeling more like a dull ache in his heart than the stabbing pain he had felt a year ago. Back then he thought he would never be happy again, so he had to give himself a little pat on the back for having so much fun at this party. He'd really come a long way.

He looked over at Cream, who was still trying to catch her breath. He envied her, sometimes. She didn't have a mean or bitter bone in her body, and in spite of the fact that she and Cosmo had been good friends, Cream was still able to keep her spirits up after her death. She was always just so excitable and energetic, and the feeling was contagious. Tails had known that feeling quite well before they had gone into space, and he wished he could go back to feeling it more often.

As Cream looked up into the night sky, she suddenly got a slightly worried look on her face. She turned to her friend and asked, "Tails, what time is it"?

Tails looked at his watch and replied "About 10:30"

"Oh no!" She jumped up and started towards the door "I told Mother I'd be home at ten! I hope she isn't too mad at me".

"Don't worry, Cream" Tails told her "We just got caught up in all the fun we were having. I'll walk you home and help explain things. Just let me go in and say goodbye to the others first."

"Ok Tails", she said happily.

Once they had said their goodbyes they flew back to Cream's house. Her mother wasn't too upset, especially after hearing what a good time they had. With Cream's father gone, Vanilla knew a little something about grief, and if her daughter staying out late had made those two happy on a day that had been very sad to them both year ago that was fine with her.

It was getting very late, and Tails had wanted to work a little more on the Mecha Tornado before he went to bed, so he said his goodbyes and flew off toward the Mystic Ruins. When Tails finally got home he was surprised to notice that the door to his workshop was ajar. He knew he'd locked it before he left, so someone must have broken in. Creeping in quietly in case the intruder was still there, Tails entered the workshop and quickly flipped on the light. Looking around, he saw that no one was there and nothing appeared to be out of place. None of the alarms had gone off, so nobody had gone into his work area. Had he really just accidentally left the door open all day? Tails was about to mentally berate his own stupidity when he finally noticed something missing. "IT'S GONE!" he screamed as he looked at the table where his flower had been this morning. He had initially overlooked it, after all why would anyone take a flower? Sure enough, though, the plant was nowhere to be found. Tails rushed over to his computer and checked the logs on the hidden cameras he'd installed outside for just such an occasion. He rewound the logs until he found the section he was looking for, and then let the tape play. His screen showed a tall gold robot and a short silver one breaking open his door, running in, and then running off to a small ship with his plant. Tails knew exactly what this meant.

"EGGMAN!"

* * *

_Author's Note: I decided to post two chapters today since I slacked off yesterday. Yay me! _

_Uh-oh, I think Tails is pissed..._


	9. Lost and Found

**Lost and Found**

"He's going to pay for this!" Tails growled as he hopped into the Mecha Tornado. He would have used one of his other planes, but his latest design had the largest and most advanced set of weaponry of the lot, and Tails wanted to make sure he sent Dr. Eggman a message he'd never forget.

Since Tails wasn't sure how long he'd be gone, he'd left a note for anyone who came looking for him. If they came to help, fine, and if not he was fairly certain he could handle things on his own. Though he was still more comfortable fighting from a cockpit, his combat skills had definitely increased from training with Sonic, Knuckles, and Rouge. Eggman and other villains had tried several schemes since he'd completed his training, and Tails had actively aided in thwarting many of them. He'd even used his fighting skills to pull Sonic out of a few jams recently, so Tails knew he could hold his own if he needed to.

He took off toward Eggman's base as fast as the jet would take him, and it wasn't long before the sprawling fortress came into view. It was plain to see that Eggman had been doing some remodeling. Tails got as close to the base as he could before transforming the jet into its walker mode and touching down. He was surprised by how weak Eggman's defenses were; just a few small robots that barely had time to see the large mech before they were destroyed by its lasers. Apparently Eggman hadn't been expecting anyone so soon.

"Well," Tails said to himself, "I guess I should make my presence known."

* * *

Dr. Eggman was currently in his newly created botany lab, gloating over his newest prize. He had noticed the steadily growing energy readings coming from Tails' workshop only a few hours ago, and had gone down to investigate fearing that his foxy rival had created something that would truly rival his genius. What he found, however, was an empty home with a glowing plant in it. He knew what plant that was, and had an idea of what might be happening to it to cause such a reaction, so he had taken advantage of Tails' absence and sent his robots in to grab it. It now sat in a large, bulletproof glass case connected to several instruments. He couldn't wait to begin studying it! And if his suspicions were correct…

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!!

Eggman's musings were cut off by a large explosion somewhere in his fortress. He ran over to his computer and opened a channel to his control room, where Decoe and Bocoe were taking care of things and Bokkuun was running around in a panic. "What happened?" he asked them

"We appear to be under attack!" Decoe informed the doctor.

"What?" He shouted. "It must be that annoying Hedgehog! I'll be right there!" He was a little annoyed at himself for not expecting this and acting appropriately. He had thought that it would take a little while for Sonic and his irritating bunch to figure out what had happened, and had even hoped that they might not interfere since all that was missing was the plant. He should have guessed that just because he couldn't see any surveillance system didn't mean it didn't exist. He should know better than to underestimate Tails by now. When he reached his control room, he immediately checked his security systems for any sign of Sonic, but what he saw instead surprised him.

"There is no sign of Sonic, Doctor," Bocoe informed him, "It appears that we are being attacked by Tails!"

Eggman watched as Tails' mech tore through the robots that had been sent to stop him like they were nothing. It appeared that Tails was deliberately taking his time, causing as much destruction as possible as he moved through the base. "It has to be a trick" he concluded "A distraction to keep my forces away from Sonic's location."

He opened a channel to a monitor near that location to address the tricky fox.

"Tails! What a pleasant surprise! But where's your blue friend?"

"He's not here," Tails told him, "It's just you and me, Eggman. You know why I'm here. Give me what I want and I'll leave."

"Oh come now," the doctor replied "we both know that you wouldn't come here alone. Why I'll bet he's somewhere outside right…" Before Eggman could finish his guess, Tails explosively cut him off.

"DON'T TOY WITH ME EGGMAN! You were THERE when it happened. You KNOW how much that plant means to me, _and_ why! Now are you going to tell me where it is or am I going to have to tear this base to pieces trying to find it?"

Eggman was speechless. He had never seen Tails so angry before. Maybe the boy was alone after all. Unfortunately, his shock lasted just a bit too long and the young fox's patience wore thin.

"Have it your way, then," Tails hissed. The last thing the doctor saw on that screen was Tails leaping from his mech and destroying the monitor with a swift kick. Eggman had a bad feeling about all this.

* * *

_Author's Note: Hmmmm, this chapter turned out a bit shorter than I thought. Next chapter will be a bit more interesting, and let Tails show off some of his stuff. It also contains the one scene that I rated this story T for. You'll know it when you read it._


	10. Angel in the Dark

**Angel in the Dark**

Tails made his way through the base destroying anything that stood in his path, and a great deal of other things while he was at it. He wasn't sure if he was going the right way, but he figured this might be his best bet. The computer that Tails had hacked into when he first entered the base had no record of his plant, but it did mention that the base had a botany lab. That was as good a place to look as any, and if the plant wasn't there Tails would just destroy the place and try another area. He came to a long hall that was too small for the Mecha Tornado to fit through. For a moment, Tails thought of blasting his way through, but if the flower really was in that room at the end of the hall he didn't want to risk damaging it. He locked the vehicle down and hopped out into the hallway, hoping he could be in and out before another swarm of robots attacked.

Just as that thought passed through his mind, ten hidden doors in the hall swung open, and a robotic sentry stepped out of each one. "HALT" was all they said to him as they raised their weapons. Tails really didn't have the time for this. He needed to find his plant. Before the machines could react, he jumped up and curled into a ball. Using his tails to propel himself forward, Tails homed in on one robot after the next and smashed through them. As he came to the last one at the end of the hall, he remembered the first time he had tried that attack many months ago and run into a wall. He chuckled at the memory as he entered the room, which Dr. Eggman had conveniently neglected to lock when he'd left it.

Tails looked around as he entered the room, and his eyes immediately focused on a large glass case with a brightly glowing object in it. It was his plant, but why was it glowing like that? What had Eggman done to it? If that man had somehow damaged the one living piece of Cosmo he had left…

Suddenly the flower started to do something that it hadn't done all year: it was blooming. A brilliant lightshow of colors sparkled around the flower as it opened to reveal a larger version of the flowers that had bloomed on Cosmo's head. The bloom continued to open, somehow growing larger and glowing brighter as it revealed layers upon layers of petals. It eventually got so bright that Tails had to shield his eyes. The light faded once the flower was finally so large that it had sagged to the floor and broken its pot. Now Tails understood why Eggman had used such a large and sturdy container for the plant, but what was happening? He didn't have to wait long for the answer. One by one the petals slowly started to fall away from the flower, revealing a familiar green haired girl at the plant's core, holding a red gem in her hands. Tails couldn't believe what he was seeing. He would have sworn it was some kind of angel, because that was the only way his mind could wrap itself around what was in front of him. In his fondest dreams he had seen her being reborn from that plant, but he had never once allowed himself to believe it, fearing to be hurt again when it turned out to be an ordinary flower. And even in his wildest dreams he had never pictured the moment as something so beautiful. He could barely speak.

"C-…Cosmo?"

The girl in the glass case opened her eyes slowly. She knew that voice.

"Tails? Is that you?" She paused for a moment, "Did you… did you die too?"

Tails laughed a bit nervously, "Nope! Not yet!"

As she became more awake Cosmo began to notice her surroundings, particularly her glass prison. She put her hands against it and felt the smooth surface, slowly realizing that if Tails wasn't dead, she must be alive. She was also confused, trapped, and getting very worried.

"Tails? What's going on?"

"Don't worry, Cosmo!" the fox assured her as he ran to the room's computer. "I'll have you out of there in a jiffy!"

He pressed a button and a large error message popped up onto the screen

ERROR: PASSWORD REQUIRED

"Password?! Pfffftt!" Tails scoffed as he rolled up his glove. He pulled a small cord out of his wrist computer and attached it to the larger machine, and within seconds, he had full access. Tails really wondered why Eggman even bothered to password protect his stuff anymore.

With just a few keystrokes, the glass container lifted up and away, and Cosmo was free. She shook off the remaining petals that clung to her body and leapt from the small platform to hug Tails tightly. That, however, was when they both realized something that they had been too excited and confused to think about earlier. Cosmo's miraculous rebirth had not included her clothes… Thus, not having the advantage of fur, she was literally as naked as the day she was born. She pulled away from the fox with a little squeak as she tried to cover herself, and tails turned away to avert his eyes and try to find something decent for her to wear. They were both blushing furiously.

"I… I'm sorry!" Tails stuttered as he handed Cosmo a long robe that was lying on the table.

"Its okay, Tails," she said as she quickly dressed and attached her jewel to the robe. She wondered why she had that jewel, which looked exactly like the one her mother had given her, but she had more pressing questions right now. "But what's happening? How am I alive? How am I here? And… where is here, anyways?"

"I think I can answer that, my little friends."

Tails and Cosmo both turned to look at the large figure that appeared in the doorway. It was, of course Dr. Eggman, along with his three robotic cronies: Decoe, Becoe, and Bokkuun.

"You see, Cosmo, after your heroic demise, Sonic and Shadow both attempted to use an ability known as Chaos Regeneration on you. Now, this ability has great healing potential, but your body was too far-gone to be properly repaired. Instead, your body reverted to a seed, a dormant state in which your mind and spirit were stored. The seed needed only the right amount of tender loving care, which you so kindly provided", he continued, pointing to Tails, "to grow to a point where Cosmo could be recreated as she was before her transformation and death. And this version even comes without the annoying Metarex spy equipment!"

"You knew this and stole that plant from my workshop anyway? After all she's done for us?" Tails fumed.

"Oh, come on, Tails, I'm an evil genius! You should know by now that nothing is sacred to me for more than a month, tops!" the doctor laughed.

"Except his ego," Bokkuun said quietly to his fellow robots, who silently nodded in agreement.

"But why did you take her in the first place?" asked Tails.

"Are you kidding?" Eggman replied "We both saw what her kind is capable of. The Metarex were able to generate enormous amounts of power by altering their life cycles and forcing their own evolution. Why, Cosmo's own transformation just a moment ago let off about as much energy as three chaos emeralds combined! If I could understand those abilities, I might be able to use that power for my own purposes. Think of it! A plant-based renewable resource that could power my Eggman Empire forever! Not to mention her presence here would make an excellent lure for my latest plot to trap that blasted hedgehog! And now…" The mad doctor grabbed Tails by his leg and held him upside down, "it appears I have two prisoners for my trap!"

"You let go of him THIS INSTANT!" Cosmo shouted. For emphasis, she jumped up and bounced on the Doctor's bald head.

"Aaaaggghhh!" Eggman clutched his head with his free hand as he shouted, "Don't just stand there you three, GRAB HER!"

Cosmo ran out the door and into the hallway as the three robots ran to catch her.

"COSMO!" Tails was NOT going to let this happen. He had already lost her once, and he was not about to risk loosing her again. He started spinning his tails faster and harder than he ever had before. All that training he'd been doing had certainly paid off. If he had been on the ground he would have taken off like a shot, and as it was he flew forward with so much force that he was literally dragging the hapless doctor behind him.

"WHOA!" the doctor called out, trying to control the frantically flying fox "SLOW DOWN!"

Tails had _no_ intention of doing that. He sped out the door after the three robots with Eggman still in tow. It only took a moment for him to catch up to the group chasing Cosmo, and Tails decided to use his extra passenger to his advantage. He rushed up behind the robots and slammed Eggman's large girth into them, causing the entire group to fall into a heap on the floor. Tails then flew to Cosmo and lifted her into his arms, and together they made their way back toward the Mecha Tornado.

"That's what you get for taking Cosmo, Eggman!" Tails shouted back as he flew.

"Hmph!" the doctor growled. "I knew my foxy nemesis was crafty, but when did he get so strong? Well, let's see how strong he really is!" Eggman pulled a small remote out of his pocket and pushed the large red button in the center.

The last thing Tails heard before he and Cosmo boarded the Tornado was Eggman's maniacal laughter in the distance. Now it was Tails' turn to have a bad feeling…

* * *

_Author's Note: Okay, for the most part, I've really been trying to keep this as close to something that might actually happen in the show as possible, but I just couldn't think of a good way to have her clothes be reborn with her. I could actually see it happening in the show anyhow, with conveniently placed machines blocking the view of anything offensive in Japan, and the scene probably being heavily edited in America. Its not like similarly embarrassing situations haven't come up for them before (ever notice how often Tails ends up on top of her somehow?). If you didn't like it, don't worry, there won't be any more scenes like that in this story._


	11. Through the Middle

**Through the Middle**

Now that he had Cosmo with him, Tails didn't want to remain in the base any longer than he had to. He fired a missile over Eggman's head and into the botany lab just for good measure, and then blew a hole in the nearest wall that would lead them outside and hopped through it. Once outside he changed the Mecha Tornado to its jet mode and flew away as fast as he could. The craft was still gaining altitude when something burst out of the base behind him. Looking back, Tails and Cosmo were surprised to find a large, mechanical dragon flying toward them, and gaining rapidly. Its great maw opened up to reveal a large laser cannon, which was currently powering up to take its first shot.

"Hang on!" Tails shouted as he tried to steer the jet away. He managed to move in the nick of time as the blast passed just below the Tornado's belly. As the jet leveled off, a volley of missiles fired from the beast's great wings. Tails, in turn, fired his anti-missile drones, which collided with the incoming missiles before they got too close.

Eggman's voice came over a loudspeaker in the dragon's head. "Give up, Tails! You're an excellent pilot, but there's no way you can out-fly my new Egg Drake! I designed it specifically with you in mind!"

Tails soon found that Eggman wasn't bluffing. His first instinct was to try and get away from the monstrous machine and find a safe place for Cosmo, but running was proving to be a poor option as the Drake was both quick and agile in the air. It easily kept up with Tails' attempts to shake it off, dodging and weaving just as the jet did, and firing missiles and lasers all the while. Tails knew he wasn't going to beat it by staying on the defensive, so he tried a little bit of offense. He killed the Mecha Tornado's thrusters for a moment and forced the beast to pass overhead, just barely managing to dodge the razor teeth and claws that raked at his machine. Tails powered up the jet's main cannon and fired. The Drake flipped just in time to dodge the beam and came straight at Tails and Cosmo with its toothy mouth wide open and its own cannon powering up. The Mecha Tornado would either have been blasted or crushed if Tails hadn't barrel rolled away.

The dogfight continued like that as the night sky was giving way to dawn. Each side gave as good as they got, and laser burns and bullet holes could be seen on both crafts. Tails turned back to check on Cosmo, and found that she looked somewhat sick. "Are you alright?" he asked her.

"Don't worry about me," she responded, "Just concentrate on the beast in front of us. I'm not sure how much longer we can keep this up!"

She was right. Tails was using one of the fake Chaos Emeralds that they had taken from the Metarex to power the Mecha Tornado for his tests, and he hadn't had the time to replace it with a real one before he took off. After such a long trip the jewel was running low on energy, and if they didn't end this soon they would be forced to land and the Eggman would get them for sure. Tails had a plan formulated in his mind, but he really wasn't sure it was such a good idea.

"I've got an idea," he told Cosmo, "but it's risky…"

"Go ahead, Tails", she responded, "You know I trust you."

"Okay," Tails said, emboldened by her words, "Here we go!"

Tails pulled the jet up as hard as he could, and as expected, the Egg Drake followed suit. They climbed higher and higher into the atmosphere, until Tails decided that it was finally time to go into space mode. This was the part he was worried about. He had only just started installing the systems that would allow for space travel, and none of those systems had been tested yet. Tails figured the booster rockets and heat shields he had installed would be just enough to allow them a few minutes in space, but he really wasn't sure of it. Furthermore, the entire plan hinged on the idea that Eggman had not equipped his machine for space travel, which Tails realized could be entirely wrong. He fired the booster rockets and took off on a wing and a prayer.

Everything seemed to be going well with the Mecha Tornado as they flew up out of the atmosphere, but the Egg Drake was still following them, and Tails was starting to think his plan had failed. Suddenly, the jets on the Drake started to flare out, and the beast lost speed. Without any air to power the beast's jets the engines couldn't work, and the heat of cruising out of the atmosphere at such high speeds had been too much for its sensors to handle. The great dragon started falling, spiraling out of control. Tails went into a dive behind the monster and was about to power up his main cannon when he stopped. The fake Chaos Emerald now only held a dim glow. Their short trip into space had required a lot more energy than he had originally thought it would. If he used the cannon, there would almost certainly not be enough energy to get them home, and they'd be sitting ducks. He'd have to improvise something quick, and he would only get one shot at it. If the Egg Drake managed to regain control it would likely be all over.

There was only one thing Tails could think to do, and he didn't like it. He had seen Sonic perform similar feats in the past, but had never really wanted to try anything so daring himself. He leveled the jet off and quickly put it in hover mode. "Stay here," he told Cosmo as he leapt out of the cockpit. She watched in horror as he used his twin tails to propel himself downward toward the dragon. He gained more and more momentum as he shot toward the Egg Drake, and eventually his feet collided with the robot. The Drake exploded in the air as the sheer force ripped through its middle and destroyed its core.

"TAILS!" Cosmo screamed. She feared the worst until she saw Tails' small form floating quickly back up toward the jet. His fur had been a little blackened from the blast, but otherwise he seemed to be unharmed. "Are you alright?" she asked, "How did you DO that?"

"There'll be plenty of time to explain things later," Tails assured her, not entirely sure how he'd just managed that feat himself, "Right now, let's just go home." Now free of their draconian pursuer, the fox pulled the Mecha Tornado out of hover mode and headed back toward the Mystic Ruins. He had been up all night, and could really use some well deserved rest, though he doubted he'd be able to sleep. Not when he had so many things he still wanted to say to Cosmo.

Eggman, who had been watching the fight from his control room, was LIVID. He could not possibly understand how one of his most advanced creations could have been beaten! By TAILS, of all people! He had been so close! He ordered his robots out of the room to begin cleaning up the ruined portions of the base so that he could simply sit alone and fume. The day hadn't been a total loss, though. Eggman had learned a valuable lesson that day. Messing with Cosmo was a surefire way to draw Tails' wrath, and he had just seen the full extent of that wrath visited on his base. He would not underestimate the twin-tailed fox again.

* * *

_Author's Note: Because every good story where the hero rescues his fair maiden needs to have a dragon in it somewhere. I'm sure Eggman will be back wih something even nastier next time, though..._


	12. The Way Things Were Meant to Be

**The Way Things Were Meant to Be**

The morning after the party, Sonic got up early (for once) and decided to head over to Tails' workshop to see how he was holding up. He knew that the day had not been particularly cheerful for Tails, and he wanted to make sure that his little bro hadn't slipped back into his old depression. Within moments, Sonic arrived at Tails' garage and found the door to the hanger wide open. He was about to call to out to see if anyone was home when he saw a note lying on the table where Tails' plant usually was. His eyes nearly popped out of his head when he read it:

_Sonic,  
__Eggman took my plant!  
__I'm going to get it back.  
__Be back soon.  
__Tails_

Thoughts of his little bro being held over boiling lava or run through some horrible machine danced through Sonic's head as he rushed outside. He knew Tails was protective of that plant, but this was ridiculous! He was going to get himself killed! The blue hedgehog was just about to head for Eggman's base when he saw a familiar shape in the sky. It was the Mecha Tornado!

As the jet came in for a landing, Sonic noticed that it had taken some pretty nasty damage, but he was more interested in the vehicle's pilot. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw that Tails was inside and appeared to be unharmed.

"Tails!" he shouted "You're back! Are ya okay? What happe-" He stopped short when he noticed the person sitting in the passenger's seat behind him. Sonic was rarely at a loss for words, but seeing someone who had been dead for a year left him practically speechless.

"Cosmo!?" he asked wide-eyed "but… how?"

"You'll never believe it Sonic!" Tails answered happily. He was just about to launch into the entire story when Cosmo interrupted him. "Umm, Tails? If you don't mind I'd like to change into something a little more appropriate."

"Oh, of course!" Tails said, blushing. In all the excitement, he had almost forgotten that she was still just wearing the medical robe he had found for her. "Follow me Sonic!" He scooped Cosmo into his arms and flew her over to a spare room. In that room were several old boxes of things he had salvaged from the Blue Typhoon, including one large box containing all of Cosmo's belongings. Tails opened the box and pulled out one of her old dresses. "Here" he said as he handed it to her "I saved all of this stuff from our trip. You can get changed in here."

"Thank you, Tails" she replied as he left the room. Looking through the box for a moment, she was honestly surprised that he had saved all of her things. Then again, she supposed she shouldn't be. Tails cared for her very much. She smiled as she thought of this and quickly got dressed.

Meanwhile, Tails went into the bathroom to clean himself up a bit before heading downstairs to meet Sonic. The two sat down on the couches in the workshop, and Tails started telling Sonic all about the adventure he had just had. Sonic listened with growing pride in the young fox as Tails told him about the missing plant from the night before, finding Cosmo again, escaping from Eggman's base, and dog-fighting with the giant robotic dragon. Sonic enjoyed the story, but he was more interested in the look in Tails' eyes as he told it. There was something there now that had been missing for a long time. They were brighter, more alive, brimming with enthusiasm. Sonic had almost forgotten what Tails' eyes had looked like before their battle with Dark Oak.

Cosmo returned just as Tails was wrapping up his story and sat down next to him. "You should have seen him, Sonic." She said as she took Tails' hand in her own "He was the picture of courage!"

"I believe it!" Sonic laughed, "I still can't believe you beat Eggman on your own, little bro"!

"Awww" Tails blushed "I can't take all the credit. The only reason I was so brave back there was because you were there, Cosmo. And the look on Eggman's face when you bounced on his head" he laughed "that was priceless." Tails held Cosmo's hand tightly in his. He was still a little afraid that she would just disappear or that he'd wake up and find that he was dreaming.

"Hey, guys"! Sonic said, interrupting Tail's musings "Why don't I go get everyone else and we can have a little celebration"!

"That sounds great, Sonic!" Tails exclaimed "But don't tell them why they're coming. Let's make that a surprise!"

"Will do!" Sonic called as he zipped out the door.

Now that they were alone, Tails had something he wanted to know. "Cosmo"

"Yes Tails?"

"What's the last thing you remember before… before you…" He still couldn't bring himself to say it, but Cosmo completed his thoughts, "Before I died?"

"Yeah…" It was a hard question for Tails to ask. He wasn't sure if she would remember what they had said in those final moments, or what she was thinking at the time. Cosmo wasn't fazed by the question at all though. She just leaned in close and kissed him, the way she had tried to that fateful day a year ago. "That's the last thing I remember", she said, smiling "I love you, Tails."

"I love you, too, Cosmo," Tails breathed. He wasn't sure, but thought that his heart might have stopped for a second, there.

They sat there for a while in silence, just enjoying each other's company. Cosmo finally had a chance to really look at Tails, and she noticed something different about him. He seemed a little older than she last remembered him. Then it occurred to her what must have happened. Now it was her turn to ask an awkward question.

"Tails, how long was I gone?"

"Oh, wow!" he said, "You've got a lot to catch up on. You've been out for a year!"

"A YEAR!?" she exclaimed. She really had lost a lot of time. Tails tried to fill her in on what had happened while she was away, and much of it really surprised her. Tails' training had answered the question of how he'd gotten so strong, but there was one thing Tails told her that she just couldn't wrap her mind around: "Amy and Sonic are actually dating? I thought he'd never stop running from her!"

"Yeah, same here!" Tails replied. Just then they heard the first of their friends arrive, and a sneaky thought hit the fox. "Come on, Cosmo! I've got an idea".

* * *

When everyone had arrived they all gathered in Tails' workshop. Amy, who had already made plans to go shopping with Sonic today (much to his dismay), was growing impatient, "Hey Tails, what's this big surprise you've got for us, huh?"

"It better be good since you had Sonic drag us out of bed so early to see it", Rouge added.

"In my opinion, it's the greatest thing ever created!" Tails said as he rolled out a large wooden crate.

"Wow, Tails, you're usually so modest about your inventions." This came from Knuckles, who was standing by Rouge and looking very bored, "If you keep this up your ego will be as big as Eggman's."

"Well" Tails replied, "This isn't exactly one of my inventions, but its still the greatest thing ever." He yanked on a small string and the box collapsed, revealing the young Seedrian inside. "Hello everyone!" she said.

She was greeted with dead silence. Nobody was quite sure how to react to the sight of one who should have been long dead. The silence was finally broken when Amy and Cream ran up to her in tears and hugged her. The poor girl almost fell over from all the attention.

"Cosmo!" Cream sobbed, "You're alive!"

"How is this possible?" Knuckles asked, still unable to comprehend what he was seeing.

"It's a long story, Knuckles," Tails assured the Echidna "But we've got plenty of time."

* * *

_Author's Note: Well, that's the end of the main story, but I've stil got one chapter left to bring this story to its logical conclusion._

_Right now though, I want to give a little shout out to all those who wrote reviews for this story. I know I said I didn't care about the reviews in the beginning, but it really was nice to hear that people liked the story so much. And Twilitbeing, I believe the answer to your question (especially as it pertains to this story) is "Measure in love."_ :)


	13. Prolog

**Prolog**

Many Years Later…

It was once again the anniversary of the date that the Metarex had been defeated, and Tails had chosen to turn this day, which had once been one of the saddest of the year for him, into the happiest of his life. Today was the day that he and Cosmo were to be married, and the ceremony was just about to begin.

It was a funny thing; normally when people get married the bride and groom are the most nervous ones there. This time, though, the bride and groom seemed to be the most calm people in the world, while everyone else seemed to be in a frenzy trying to make sure that the evening went perfectly.

It was a small wedding, and the guests were pretty much all of the same people who had been to Sonic and Amy's wedding. In the audience were Rouge, Vanilla, Charmey, Espio and several of their other friends, like Mighty the Armadillo. Tails' groomsmen included Sonic and Knuckles, while Cosmo's bridesmaids were Amy and Cream. Cheese was the ring bearer, and the only new face at the ceremony, Sonic and Amy's daughter Sonia Rose, was the flower girl. Vector served as both the official of the wedding and the Emcee for the reception.

The ceremony took place by the lake in the Mystic Ruins. It was one of Tails and Cosmo's favorite spots, and they had spent many afternoons together sitting by the waterfall that fed the larger pool. The sun was just setting as the two read their vows and said their "I do"s, and everyone cheered at the couple's first kiss as man and wife.

The reception included lots of food, toasts and dancing as stars, lanterns and fireflies lit up the night. The bride and groom had just finished a dance and sat down when Sonia came running up to them. "Come dance with me Uncle Tails!" The little purple hedgehog demanded, jumping up and down with excitement.

"Go ahead Tails," Cosmo giggled.

As Sonia dragged Tails off to the dance floor, Cosmo found herself alone for the first time all night. She looked up into the starry sky and reflected on all of the good times she'd had on her new home planet, and all of the marvelous friends she'd made. She wondered what else was in store for her in this world. She had thought that her time had come and gone the day the Metarex were defeated, but here she was, receiving a rare second chance at life.

"Is this how things were supposed to be, Mother?" She asked staring into the sky.

"Yes."

Cosmo jumped as she heard her mother's ethereal voice. She hadn't actually expected an answer. It seemed to come from nowhere, but she knew it came from the red gem she always wore even to this day.

"My child, you and your friends are living proof of the idea that all beings can live together in peace," the voice continued, "Your children will be the rebirth of our people, and with it the rebirth of Mobius. It will be a new world, where plants and animals thrive together, a shining example for the rest of the galaxy."

Cosmo sighed contentedly as her mother's words faded away. "Thank you" she whispered. She had not needed her mother's approval, and in fact would not have regretted her decision to marry Tails even if her mother had outright forbade it, but it was still good to hear that her mother approved.

Tails walked back to his bride to see her still gazing up at the stars. "Everything ok Cosmo?" he asked as he sat next to her.

"As long as you're here," she replied as she leaned back against him "Everything's great".

"Good," Tails said as he leaned over to kiss her, " 'cause like Vector said during the ceremony, this is just the beginning of our story."

* * *

_Author's Note: Fluffy ending. I decided that since my prolog was sort of an epilog, why not make the epilog a kind of prolog? You may notice I paid special attention in pointing out a certain character. I'm thinking of writing a sequel, and he might just be making an appearance. I've got a lot more to say about these characters before I stop writing about them, and the beginnings of a story have been forming in my head. See you guys next time, and thanks again to all the readers and reviewers!_


End file.
